You woke up to the sound of someone shaking you with their small arms, and you opened your eyes to see a little boy standing in front of you. He was trying to rock you awake as you sat up. As your eyes adjusted to the morning light trickling in through a nearby window, the boy's face turned visibly red.

"Oh..." he stammered, "you're hot miss".

Your face grew to a bright beetroot colour and you squealed in shock and repelled away from him. The back of your head smacked into the tile wall next to the sink ledge you were sitting on. Your clothing lifted up as your knees knocked against your chest.

"Ah! Don't say bold things like that! You're way too young!" You spluttered.

"I'm old enough to see clearly" He snorted and crossed his arms, turning his nose up at you. You sighed, he's just a little kid, I guess they can't help but be blatant. "What are you doing here anyway lady?"

You tugged at your cotton shirt to fix it awkwardly, "Calcifer let me in!" You finally found your voice and the boy actually took a few steps back in shock at your volume. You apologised for shouting as the fire retorted in its ashy pit.

"Only cause we need someone to help clean around here! Look at this place! We've got cockroaches in the walls and spiders on every wall!" Calcifer spat embers as the little boy tossed another log at him.

The boy folded his petite arms over his chest, "we don't have roaches anymore" he rolled his narrow eyes, "the rats ate 'em all".

"Oh greaat!!" Calcifer said sarcastically, waving his flaming arms in the air, "we've got rats now!"

You stood up, moving lightly along the balls of your feet because your bruises still stung under your toes, "you really live in an awful place".

"Rude~" Calcifer stuck his tongue out, you replied childishly by sticking your tongue out at him.

"I'm Markl by the way" He held out his hand and you shook it firmly.

"Her name's (Y/n)" The fire spat out, chewing on the log under his flaming body, you turned to him quickly and scowled.

"I can introduce myself!" You hissed and the little boy chortled with laughter, he looked like he was about to say something when the front doorbell rang, catching all of your attention.

"Its the Jenkins door" The fire demon called and you watched with wonder as the boy ran over to one of the chairs, dragging a small blue cloak off its back and throwing it on. As he pulled his hood up, his face morphed into that of an old man and he grew a beard almost down to the floor.

"Age-manipulation magic" you whispered. Markl ignored you as he ran down the steps and turned a dial on the wooden door, shifting a little colour idle to green and opening it. You were amazed when the door opened up to a man in a kingdom's uniform, asking for the 'Great Wizard Jenkins'.

Markl shook his head, "the master is not at home, but I take his messages in his place" he said in a deeper sounding voice, must be part of his disguise as well.

The man nodded and smiled on the other side of the door, holding his hat to his chest, "that's quite alright. I just have an invitation from the king for the great wizard, the king requests his assistance in this war and insists he reports straight to the castle!"

"Understood" Markl said as he snatched the letter out of the man's gloved hand and wished him a good day before shutting the door.

As the boy hurried back up the stairs, you were standing stock-still in shock, "J-Jenkins? Is there another wizard here too? Are they more dangerous than Howl?!" Your fingers wrapped around the fabric flushed against your sternum and squeezed it hard, "am I going to get eaten!?"

"Don't worry (Y/n)" Markl said as he pulled down his hood and his 'elderly' disguise vanished as quickly as it had appeared, "you're very safe here". He dumped the letter on top of another that was already sitting on one of the nearby desks, "that's the second one, both summons..." he muttered to himself.

You looked back at Calcifer and noticed he was pulling faces at you, you pinched your nose and blew raspberries at him in return. When your (E/c) eyes fell back on the door, you noticed the outside of the windows had changed, we're next to the ocean? Did this castle really move that far in just one night.

Your thoughts were disrupted when there was a clattering of pots behind you as Markl had climbed up a pile of them to get some cheese and bread to eat for his breakfast, "I'm starved" he pouted as he climbed back down, carrying the cheese and bread.

You noticed some bacon hiding under another plate, they looked fresh and well-ready to fry up. You also found a basket of eggs and smiled, "wouldn't you want some bacon and eggs instead?"

Markl glanced at you in disbelief as you picked up one of the frying pans off the floor and set the plate of bacon inside the basket of eggs so you could carry it all over to the firepit. The boy walked along beside you to watch, "you realise we cant use the fire when master Howl isn't here?" He tugged on your clothing with one hand, "Calcifer only obeys Howl".

"We'll see about that" You smirked and held the pan over the fire demon, "so what'll it be Calcifer?"

He writhed back onto the next log angrily, "no way!" He turned his flaming back to the two of you, "I'm not a stove!"

"Aw come on Calcifer" You caught his attention by sliding your hand down your body to your hip, "surely you can do this little thing for me, right?" You gave him a wink and smoke blasted out the sides of his face in defeat.

"Oh fine!" He snorted crossly and you grinned and set the pan down on top of his body, "may all your bacon burn" he growled at you as you began setting the strips onto the pan's hot base.

"Good fire~" You gestured a tickling motion under his chin but didn't get close enough to burn your hand, the fire turned pink for a second before his face disappeared under the pan so he could hide. Markl just stood their amazed but decided not to question why the dangerous fire demon was even listening to you.

"(Y/n)" the fire said after a while, you were halfway through cooking when you tipped your face down to see Calcifer looking at your chest, "why do you move like you weigh nothing? Even with brusies so dark on your feet you move with ease like you don't have any weight to you at all".

"Hm" You thought about the question, and spoke rather solemnly, "I guess I just don't have anything in me that's heavy, just skin bones and some useful organs".

The fire grows silent, only the sizzling of the bacon is heard in the castle now, and the moving of the water and rats through the rusty, metal pipes.

After you'd set all the bacon and eggs into the pan, tossing the egg-shells into the demon's mouth because you knew he could eat them, you sang quietly to yourself as you started clearing the table of all its junk.

Markl helped out, carrying the books to put them along the walls on the floor and you held up an old table cloth, that was thankfully clean, for him to sweep clear of dust.

Setting the table, you managed to locate some clean utensils, the others you washed in the sink, and took the pan off Calcifer and put it onto the table. You and Markl sat down beside each other and you served up some food for him, and some for yourself.

You were halfway through eating when you snapped your fingers, "wait a minute! You know what would go great with this bacon?"

Markl panicked at the sudden noise and almost choked on his fried egg, "gwa-what?"

"Pancakes!"

"Oh Howl you're back!" You heard Markl call from the table as he downed another maple-covered pancake. You didn't dare to look back as you focused all of your attention instead on the pancake cooking in front of you, "you got invitations from the King, as both Pendragon and Jenkins!"

You swallowed, Calcifer's flames seemed to reach up a little higher to warm your hand moving the pancake with a wooden spoon, in an attempt to calm your shallow breathing. He's here... what if the second I turn around he rips my heart out!?

You felt someone come up behind you, a chin leaned over your shoulder to look down at the fire, "Calcifer? You're being so tame~" The voice was deep and husky and it made your body quiver as your cheeks grew hot and you pushed the pancake to one side of the pan.

Calcifer's face appeared in the flames and shook his inferno face, "hey back it up Howl, this is my thing" he pointed at you and you lowered your head to hide your face under your (H/l) hair.

"I see~"

You gasped as a hand gently moved your hair aside and lifted it behind your ear, your eyes flew left and you were met with the dazzling blue eyes of a tall blonde boy... Howl...

"Here" Howl let his hand fall over yours to slowly remove the spoon from your grip, "you look like you haven't eaten yet, why don't you sit down and let me do this?"

You don't know where you plucked up the courage but you held your breath before saying, "no thankyou, I'm doing fine just as I am, I'll make you some too if you want to sit down" you let your hand gesture back to the table.

Markl licked his plate and looked up, "yeah Howl! Come sit next to me! (Y/n) cooks wicked good pancakes their like heaven!"

"Heaven?" Howl looks down at you, after you hold his mesmerising gaze for a moment, he nods and sets the wooden spoon back into your hands, "It'd be my pleasure to eat something cooked for me, I cant remember the last time that happened". He smiled softly and walked over to the table to sit beside the little boy.

Your figure turned itself back to the fire and Calcifer was pink as he looked up at you, you practically matched in facial expression. "Sorry..." he muttered, "that was a little forward of me..."

"You're a demon Calcifer" you whispered back, flipping the pancake, "so I'm not going to trust what you say, nor do I trust your apologies" you grumbled. "I don't trust any of you. I just need a place to stay".

"Oh wow this is great!!" Howl said cheerfully as he took his first fork-full of pancake, you sat down at the head of the little table, beside Howl and then Markl, with your own plate.

"Mm" You poked your food with your spoon, "thankyou".

"So (Y/n)" Howl looked curiously at you, a perfect blonde eyebrow raised, "what brought you into my castle?"

"My bloody good luck and wishful thinking you stinking blue-eyed blondie!" Califer spat embers from his fire, holding a flaming fist in the air towards the wizard, who simply shrugged off the fire demon's remarks.

You decided it was best not to speak, after all, there was no telling the powers Howl possessed, and over time you had heard hundreds of stories that told you to fear him. You turned over your fork too quickly by accident and it scrapped loudly over the plate, you uttered a simple "sorry" and let your hair fall over your eyes to shield you.

Howl rested his chin in his open hand to watch you, content with just sitting quietly like this until Markl thumped his plate loudly down on the table. "I'm done! (Y/n) if you're going to clean the rooms don't do mine!" He pointed accusingly at you.

That's when your eyebrows furrowed and your head wiped up from its resting place, "I'm cleaning this entire place from top to bottom since I've got nothing better to do, if you don't want me to find something in your room you better hide it now". You flicked a blueberry off your plate and he fumbled to catch the berry covered in thick golden syrup.

"DO MY ROOM LAST!" Markl yelped and loudly hurried up the stairs.

TO BE CONTINUED!